CC LIVE: Adult directors must ensure transitions are planned for people with Asperger’s

Directors of adult social services must ensure appropriate transition planning is in place for people with Asperger’s syndrome to prevent them falling through gaps in services, Community Care LIVE heard yesterday.

Philip Jones, the Social Care Institute for Excellence’s practice development manager for adult services care groups, made the comments in a session on transitional services, after a questioner had claimed people with the condition were “falling through the net of learning difficulties and mental health services”.

Jones said adult directors should ensure protocols are in place to ensure “service users are not put in this hideous position”.

Service user Sophie Reilly, who is paralysed from the ribs downwards and registered blind, said what had helped her during her transition was having practitioners who believed in her abilities and choices.

She said: “Sometimes practitioners have to take slight risks in order to prepare people for the future. Let’s help young people through transition by preparing them for life ahead. Let’s not make them think of themselves as disabled unless they have to.”

Reilly added that she even though she graduated from university three years ago she still considered herself “to be in transition” and services must be aware that there are many different stages to transition throughout an individual’s life.